Unraveling a family tree leads Easton women to jail

Elaine Anderson and her friend, Sara Carroll, discover that Anderson’s great-grandmother died in the county jail in 1909, serving a sentence for "keeping a disorderly house."

By Vicki-Ann Downing

The Enterprise, Brockton, MA

By Vicki-Ann Downing

Posted Jul. 3, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jul 3, 2011 at 3:10 AM

By Vicki-Ann Downing

Posted Jul. 3, 2011 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jul 3, 2011 at 3:10 AM

EASTON

» Social News

When retired teacher Elaine Anderson decided to learn more about her great grandmother Elizabeth Dunphy McManus, she didn’t expect the search would lead her to jail.

But one June morning, Anderson and her friend, genealogy researcher Sara Carroll, both Easton residents, found themselves at the Plymouth County House of Correction, poring over old ledgers with the sheriff, Joseph D. McDonald, and his staff.

Anderson’s great-grandmother died in Plymouth in 1909, at age 56, in the midst of a one-month jail sentence imposed after she was tried in Brockton on a charge of “keeping a disorderly house.”

The allegation didn’t mean that McManus failed to vacuum and dust. Instead, her neighbors on Water Street in Brockton came forward to tell the court about disturbances linked to excessive drinking by McManus, her husband and her son.

Anderson, 63, who retired as a teacher from the Hancock School in Brockton, wasn’t upset to discover the truth about her great-grandmother.

“When I learned more about her, I found out that she gave birth 17 times,” said Anderson. “My great-grandfather, Michael Dunphy, died of tuberculosis and left her with eight kids and no source of income. I think she went out and met the next boat from Ireland to find a husband and married McManus.”

Her life was a sad one.

But as Carroll said, “Anyone who starts doing research will find a story.”

First clue online

The first clue to finding McManus came when Carroll, a speech pathologist in the West Bridgewater schools who does family trees as a hobby, found her death certificate online through the New England Genealogical Society.

Carroll, 51, discovered that McManus, though born in Randolph and living in Brockton, had died in Plymouth.

“I thought it was odd – maybe she was vacationing,” said Carroll. “Then I went to the Brockton Public Library to look up her obituary on microfilm, and I discovered she died while an inmate at the Plymouth County House of Correction.”

Old copies of The Brockton Enterprise told Carroll and Anderson the story. There was even an article about her trial.

McManus took ill with “inflammation of the brain” while in jail, the newspaper said.

“Her condition became so serious that Sheriff Henry H. Porter had her removed to the Jordan Hospital,” the newspaper reported. “She rallied somewhat after lying delirious for two days, but sank later and the end came this morning.”

When Carroll contacted the House of Correction for more details, Sheriff McDonald invited the women to visit. He told them there was no separate prison facility for women at the “The County Prison,” as it was then known, so McManus likely went home every night with the matron, who may have been the sheriff’s wife.

Page 2 of 2 - Always a mystery

Anderson, who describes herself as half Irish and half Lithuanian, said her interest in compiling a family tree was piqued after she first met her paternal grandfather, George Dunphy, when she was in high school. He and her father, Joseph Dunphy, had been estranged for many years.

Her grandfather never knew his mother, McManus, and did not talk about his family.

“This was a mystery,” Anderson said.

Since discovering the truth about her great-grandmother’s death, Anderson has learned other facts as well. Elizabeth McManus, born Elizabeth Donahue, was illegitimate; her mother married her father when she was 3. Fourteen of her 17 children lived to adulthood.

“The interesting thing to see is alcoholism and how it affected the family through the generations,” said Anderson. “I can see the trail going right through. In a way, it’s like a cautionary tale. You can show it to other generations and say, ‘There is this gene in the family. We tend to have addictive-personality traits.’”

Carroll and Anderson found McManus’ burial spot in an unmarked grassy area at Calvary Cemetery in Brockton. They put flowers there.

“She had a rough start to begin with, and it just got worse, the poor thing,” said Anderson.